Recap / SpongeBob SquarePants S3 E5 "Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy IV" / "Doing Time"

AND THERE COMES A GIANT FIST!

Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy IV

Original air date: 1/21/2002 (produced in 2001)

Mermaid Man accidentally leaves his Utility Belt at the Krusty Krab. SpongeBob picks it up and accidentally activates the belt's Shrink Ray, which causes all sorts of chaos.

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Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy IV contains examples of:

• 2D Visuals, 3D Effects: Clearly noticeable is the CG imagery when SpongeBob slowly dents through the metal wall, before bursting through.
• An Aesop:
  • If someone accidentally leaves something laying around and you don't know what it does, don't mess around with it.
  • Also, it's better to confess your mistakes rather than trying to hide them until they grow into something even worse.
  • Weapons are not toys.
• Ash Face: Squidward's face is covered in ash after SpongeBob zaps him repeatedly with Mermaid Man's belt.
• Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: Inverted in that it's the shrunken Bikini Bottomites who attack SpongeBob's innards.
• Big "WHAT?!": The Bikini Bottomers after Mermaid Man asked SpongeBob if he set it to Wumbo, implying that not even Mermaid Man himself knows how to unshrink them.
• Brick Joke: Midway through the episode, Patrick suggests setting the Utility Belt to "W for Wumbo," rambling about how the Perfectly Cromulent Word is apparently a real and thoroughly studied concept. Much later, when the shrunken town population demands that Mermaid Man tell how to un-shrink them all, he absentmindedly suggests setting it to Wumbo.
• Continuity Nod: Plankton returns to find Bikini Bottom and its' people shrunken down to where he's a giant compared to them, inadvertently fulfilling his dream of being a rampaging giant in "Sleepy Time".
• Dirty Coward: Due to not wanting to own up to not trying to return Mermaid Man's belt for fear of being kicked out of his fan club, SpongeBob keeps shrinking people just to cover himself.
• The Dog Bites Back: After SpongeBob shrinks and tries to detain the whole of Bikini Bottom from telling Mermaid Man, they snap and enter his body to give him an internal No-Holds-Barred Beatdown.
• Dude, Where's My Reward?: Mermaid Man tries to order lunch at the Krusty Krab, but he doesn't have enough cash to pay for the meal. Squidward refuses to place the order unless he has enough money, prompting Barnacle Boy to defend that they are superheroes who defended civilization for eons, and asks shouldn't they at least get a discount. Squidward refuses, so Barnacle Boy begrudgingly pays for the meal himself.
• Easily Forgiven:
  • Ironically, Mermaid Man is quite understanding towards SpongeBob about messing with the belt. By that point, however, SpongeBob has shrunk the entire (very furious) community of Bikini Bottom... At least partaking in their retribution.
  Mermaid Man: We've been shrinking for years!
  Barnacle Boy: But this is ridiculous!
  • SpongeBob also has no ill feelings towards the Bikini Bottomites after they gave him a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown after he pleased them by shrinking the entire town and himself to their size.
• Eleventy Zillion:
  Mermaid Man: I remember when I first used the belt. The year was... nineteen-ought-eleventy-twelve! Why, I believe the president then was...
  Bikini Bottomites: JUST TELL HIM HOW TO UNSHRINK US!!!
• Esoteric Happy Ending: In-universe. SpongeBob shrinks the whole town and then himself. Everyone is happy with the idea and congratulates him. Then they all cheer and a party is thrown. Then a normal sized bus arrives and a now giant (by comparison) Plankton disembarks.
• Facepalm: Done by Squidward when Patrick asks SpongeBob to take a look at Mermaid Man's belt.
• Failed a Spot Check: SpongeBob goes into such a panic shrinking everyone in Bikini Bottom that he somehow failed to notice he shrunk Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy themselves.
• From Bad to Worse: SpongeBob's situation with the belt just keeps getting worse, eventually culminating in him accidentally shrinking everyone in Bikini Bottom and almost being killed by said shrunken townspeople. By the end of the episode and with no real means of reversing it, SpongeBob settles for shrinking Bikini Bottom itself down, followed by himself.
• Half the Man He Used to Be: When SpongeBob tries to unshrink Squidward, at one point the latter gets cut in half lengthwise with scissors, but he remains alive and conscious.
• Hypocritical Humor: Barnacle Boy calling Squidward "big nose". Not to mention his nose is thicker in width than Squidward's.
  Squidward: Who're you calling big nose, big nose?
• Laser-Guided Karma: After shrinking and imprisoning everyone in town just to keep them quiet, the miniaturised Bikini Bottomites break free and supply a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown to SpongeBob's insides.
• Loony Fan: SpongeBob is depicted as the trope in the episode. The mere mention of Mermaid Man being at the Krusty Krab sends SpongeBob into a manic frenzy, tearing a pen out of a customer's pocket and frantically chasing his idol down for an autograph like a wild animal, to Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy's horror.
• Man on Fire: At one point when SpongeBob zaps him with Mermaid Man's belt, Squidward's body catches fire.
• Miniature Senior Citizens: Mermaid Man notes he and Barnacle Boy have been shrinking for years.
• Never My Fault: Downplayed with Squidward, while having a valid reason to report to Mermaid Man, just seemed to enjoy the idea of SpongeBob getting in trouble a little too much. SpongeBob may have shrunk him and took the belt to begin with, but he's also right that Squidward taking advantage of the situation was not a good idea.
• No Ending: The episode ends with everyone and everything in Bikini Bottom (except Plankton) being shrunken down thanks to Mermaid Man's Utility Belt without any explanation to how everyone got back to their normal sizes.
• Pain to the Ass: While running away from SpongeBob, Barnacle Boy dramatically leaps into the Invisible Boatmobile... and lands on the gear shift.
  Barnacle Boy: YEEEOWWW! (to Mermaid Man) I told you we should've gotten the automatic!
• Perfectly Cromulent Word: Both Patrick and Mermaid Man suggest setting the belt to "Wumbo".
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Even after SpongeBob took Mermaid Man's belt and shrunk everyone in Bikini Bottom to keep it a secret, Mermaid Man harbor no ill-will towards him and says that he does understands SpongeBob's reasoning for why he took it and why he didn't return it. Though he does join in with the Bikini Bottomites in beating SpongeBob up from the inside.
• The Reveal: This episode provides us with a visual representation of what the Invisible Boatmobile looks like: a stock photo of a pink Cadillac Series 62 convertible.
• Scream Discretion Shot: After seeing a few disgusting mutations SpongeBob inflicted on Squidward with the belt, the scene cuts to only showing SpongeBob going through different settings with Squidward screaming off camera and SpongeBob giving a worried look. One transformation has Squidward making really gross gargling and choking noises while SpongeBob visibly cringes.
• Series Continuity Error:
  • The Invisible Boatmobile is depicted in this episode as a pink Cadillac Series 62 convertible. However, prior appearances in seasons one and two depicted it as simply a regular boatmobile that just happened to be invisible.
  • Mermaid Man acts like there's no means of reversing the effects of the Shrink Ray, despite SpongeBob mentioning in "Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy" that he and Barnacle Boy invented a growth ray that supposedly made things "six times their size"; while it's possible that the elder Mermaid Man simply forgot about it, the episode never clarifies the situation one way or the other.
• Shout-Out: When SpongeBob zaps Squidward and a monster appears on his head, he exclaims, in a very Ralph Kramden-esque cadence, "Get it off me! GET it OFF me!"
• Shrink Ray: The one in Mermaid Man's belt is what causes all the chaos this episode.
• Strange Minds Think Alike: Patrick and Mermaid Man's solution to help SpongeBob unshrink everybody: "Did you set it to Wumbo?"
• Suicide as Comedy: Squidward humorously contemplates suicide in deadpan fashion when having to endure Patrick's "Wumbo" tangent.
  Squidward: I wonder if a fall from this height would be enough to kill me.
• Take a Third Option: When it is revealed that Mermaid Man himself is unaware of how to reverse the shrinking process and it seems like everyone is going to be small forever, SpongeBob gets an idea: shrink Bikini Bottom to suit the size of the residents! The residents decide it makes no difference and everything is right in the world... until Plankton comes back from vacation.
• Tempting Fate: SpongeBob assures himself he only has to keep two shrunken people under control. Then Sandy comes behind him and he shrinks her in a panic, then another person... then another... and another...
• Too Gruesome for Cartoon Physics: The results of Squidward being zapped with the belt eventually become so gruesome that the camera refuses to show it.
• Torches and Pitchforks: Everyone forms a mob and beat up SpongeBob's organs after realizing that not even Mermaid Man knows how to unshrink everyone. They become satisfied after SpongeBob shrinks Bikini Bottom and himself.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom:
  • Mermaid Man unwittingly leaves his belt in the hands on SpongeBob, setting up the entire plot.
  • By threatening to tell Mermaid Man and get him to kick SpongeBob out of his fan club, Squidward caused SpongeBob to shrink him down, causing SpongeBob to become so paranoid that he would eventually shrink down everyone in Bikini Bottom.
• Villains Out Shopping: Plankton misses the town getting shrunken because he's on vacation.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Patrick disappears right after being shrunk down.
• Your Size May Vary: Everything the belt shrinks seems to get smaller and smaller as the episode goes on. When SpongeBob first shrinks Squidward, he's about the size of a pickle. Later, when he's shrunken everyone in town, they're all roughly marble-sized, fitting in one jar together and being able to climb into SpongeBob's pores. At the end, Plankton, whose own size ranges from microscopic to finger-length, towers over the shrunken buildings, making him at least ten times bigger than the people.

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Happiness is no more SpongeBob.

Doing Time

Original air date: 1/21/2002 (produced in 2001)

Driving class goes horribly wrong for SpongeBob again, and it leads to Mrs. Puff going to prison. While inside, Mrs. Puff realizes she never has to see SpongeBob again if she's in jail. However, she's not too thrilled to find that he and Patrick are trying to break her out.

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Doing Time contains examples of:

• An Aesop: If someone you like gets sent to jail, don't try to break them out. That will only make things worse.
  • Don't force your help on someone who doesn't want to be helped.
• All Just a Dream: ...within a dream... within another dream... within yet another dream... within a...well, you get the point. It was basically Inception before Inception.
• Bait-and-Switch: The police officers are first shown beating someone off-screen with their batons, yelling that they're going to "straighten them out". It's then revealed that they were fixing parking meters. Seconds later, SpongeBob drives through a building causing it to fall down. The officers are shocked not by the reckless action but because the car had no front licence plate. Bikini Bottom's finest, ladies and gentlemen.
• Brutal Honesty: You know you really screwed up when Patrick says you screwed up!
  SpongeBob: Maybe if I go talk to Patrick, he can ease my guilt. (tells Patrick the whole story off-screen)
  Patrick: (unimpressed) Well, it sounds like it's all your fault.
• Department of Redundancy Department: When Mrs. Puff lists out the things she won't have to deal with when she's in jail. Then, she mentions SpongeBob, and she starts mentioning SpongeBob many times:
  Mrs. Puff: Okay, you can do this, Puff. You can get through this without losing your sanity! Oh, that's a road we don't want to go down again. Positives. Think of the positives. Let's see. I've got... no more papers to grade? Yeah! (laughs then jumps to the floor) I-In fact, no more work! No more boating school classes! No more driving, no more SpongeBob... (Mrs. Puff's brain clicks and a sonar ping is heard) No more phone solicitors, no more SpongeBob! No more company potlucks, no more SpongeBob. (gets into bed) No more road rage, no more SpongeBob! No more insurance payments, no more SpongeBob! No more SpongeBob! (laughing) No more SpongeBob! (screaming maniacally) NO MORE SPONGEBOOOB!!! (sighs) I think I'm gonna like this place...
• Description Cut: When SpongeBob has a conversation with Patrick about Mrs. Puff.
  SpongeBob: Just the thought of her alone and afraid in jail makes me think about her being alone and afraid in jail. I don't know how she's going to survive.
  (cut to Mrs. Puff breaking rocks, making license plates, and lifting weights while singing with a happy expression)
• Didn't Think This Through: SpongeBob and Patrick forgot to bring guns to the bank robbery.
• Drives Like Crazy: SpongeBob is a terrible driver and causes widespread damage across the city. This time, it causes his instructor, Mrs. Puff, to be arrested.
• Dumbass Has a Point: Patrick is the first to realize Mrs. Puff has no desire to escape jail.
  Mrs. Puff: SpongeBob, I am not going with you!
  SpongeBob: (laughs) Good one, Mrs. Puff! Now hop in! C'mon!
  Patrick: SpongeBob, I think she means it.
  SpongeBob: Oh, that's crazy, Patrick.
  Mrs. Puff: He's right, SpongeBob. I'm staying!
• Epic Fail: The "bank robbery". To elaborate, SpongeBob and Patrick make a pathetic attempt at robbing a bank to get themselves thrown in jail. This hilariously fails for three reasons. First, SpongeBob and Patrick are wearing socks covering up their eyes and not black ski masks, making it a piss-poor disguise. Second, while they were yelling at the bank teller, they were facing the wrong way. Third, due to neither SpongeBob nor Patrick having any type of weapons to scare the bank teller, the latter isn't frightened and calmly asks SpongeBob for his card. SpongeBob politely gives it to him.
• Fruit Cart: At one point in the beginning, SpongeBob hits a watermelon stand.
  Vendor: Hey, what do you got against the melons?
• Full-Body Disguise: At one point while Mrs. Puff is freaking out in her cell, SpongeBob and Patrick disguise as two of the prison guards this way, but does not help things. When Mrs. Puff closes her eyes she cries out, Sponge and Pat leave and the real guards they're impersonating try to calm her down, but Mrs. Puff claims she isn't fooled by their disguises and tries to unmask them, only to tear off their real faces and reveal their skulls underneath.
• Gainax Ending: A dream within a dream within another dream and the cycle goes on?
• Gilligan Cut: First, when SpongeBob decides to go talk to Patrick:
  SpongeBob: Maybe if I go talk to Patrick, he can ease my guilt.
  (cut to outside Patrick's rock)
  Patrick: Well, it sounds like it's all your fault.
  • Then a few seconds later:
    SpongeBob: To get her out of jail, first we gotta get in jail.
    Patrick: How are we gonna do that?
    (cut to the bank)
    SpongeBob: All right! Put the money in the bag! PUT IT IN!!!
    Bank Teller: Uh, you're facing the wrong way, sir.
• Great Escape: Inverted. It's SpongeBob and Patrick who are trying to break Mrs. Puff out of prison.
• The Guards Must Be Crazy: The prison guards completely failing to realize that SpongeBob and Patrick have infiltrated the facility is a Running Gag. Even when SpongeBob and Patrick are right infront of him, one guard thinks they are inanimate objects. Justified in that it’s just a hallucination.
• I Choose to Stay: Mrs. Puff takes a liking to prison in spite of having to sleep right next to a toilet just because she can get away from SpongeBob.
• I Have a Family: SpongeBob begs the police he has a snail to feed when it's his turn to go to jail.
• It's All My Fault: SpongeBob feels terrible for getting Mrs. Puff incarcerated.
• Last-Second Word Swap: How Mrs. Puff tries to explain why she prefers jail over being outside with SpongeBob.
  Mrs. Puff: And besides, if I'm in here, that means I won't have to deal with you... (she sees SpongeBob sad and about to cry) ...uranium! In the water supply.
• Lemming Cops: All the cops chasing after SpongeBob and Mrs. Puff follow them off the unfinished bridge and end up crashing into and around the fruit punch tanker, causing it to flood Shady Shoals.
• Life's Work Ruined: When SpongeBob's wreck causes a truck full of fruit punch to flood the retirement home. One resident happily declares his memoirs finally finished only for it to be drenched by the punch. It would have still been readable if it wasn't for the fact he chose to write it in red ink.
• Literally Shattered Lives: SpongeBob and Patrick, disguised as rocks, are mistaken for real rocks and get smashed to bits.
• Major Injury Underreaction:
  • SpongeBob is more worried about losing the deposit on their rock costumes than the fact that they were smashed into gravel while wearing them.
  • The prison guards are just mildly annoyed by Mrs. Puff completely ripping their faces off, believing them to have been SpongeBob and Patrick in disguise.
• Mind Screw: The ending.
• Misplaced Retribution: Zigzagged when she first wakes up from the dream, where SpongeBob gets taken away instead, only for an officer to mention how she already did her time, ultimately causing her to wake up again.
• Morphic Resonance: Disguised as rocks, SpongeBob and Patrick are still yellow and pink respectively.
• My God, What Have I Done?: SpongeBob is sitting alone in an empty classroom, feeling incredibly guilty for getting Mrs. Puff arrested, completely oblivious to how much fun she's actually having in prison.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: SpongeBob for getting Mrs. Puff arrested.
• No Ending: Mrs. Puff and SpongeBob keep falling in their boat, and the issue is left unresolved.
  Mrs. Puff: Ah, forget it!
• Not a Mask: After Mrs. Puff sees SpongeBob and Patrick perfectly disguised as two of the prison guards, when she's not looking, Sponge and Pat leave and the actual guards they were impersonating enter. Mrs. Puff thinks they're still really "SpongeBob and that guy who likes the chili" and tries to rip off their rubber masks... only to tear off their actual faces and reveal their skulls underneath! This act gets Mrs. Puff put in solitary confinement.
• Parental Bonus: SpongeBob mentioning what life is like outside of prison.
• Police Are Useless: The security guards lazily brush off Mrs. Puff's pleas to properly get rid of SpongeBob and Patrick, instead just flushing them away or mistaking them for inanimate objects.
• Prefer Jail to the Protagonist: Not having to teach SpongeBob anymore is enough for Mrs. Puff to love being an inmate.
• Ribbon-Cutting Ceremony: The Mayor of Bikini Bottom does this with an unfinished bridge...just in time for SpongeBob to burst through the ribbon just before the mayor can cut it.
• Rule of Funny: Bikini Bottom is apparently allowed to accept opening an unfinished bridge.
• Rule of Symbolism: As the fish lives his life "outside of prison", there's always something in front of him or surrounding him. The windshield in his car, his cubicle, the window frame in his room. Despite living on the outside, he's still very much imprisoned by his mundane lifestyle.
• Series Continuity Error: Mrs. Puff acts like this is the first time she's ever been to jail, but two previous episodes; "Hall Monitor" and "No Free Rides" ended with her going to jail. This might have been lampshaded during one of her nightmares where SpongeBob is arrested instead of her and a cop asks "Why would you go to jail? You already did your time."
• Skewed Priorities:
  • After SpongeBob knocks down a building with his boatmobile, the police witness this but seem more interested in the fact he was driving without a front license plate.
  • Also, SpongeBob after being squashed by Mrs. Puff during their crash landing.
    Mrs. Puff: SpongeBob, are you okay?
    SpongeBob: (while folded like an accordion) That depends— (smiles up at Mrs. Puff) did I pass?
• Soundtrack Dissonance: The heavenly OST "Springtime for Lovers" is played as Mrs. Puff declares that the gruesome and intimidating inmates are "her people".
• Squashed Flat: After the boat-mobile crash near the beginning, Mrs. Puff rises from the ground to reveal she was laying on top of a now squashed SpongeBob.
• Tear Off Your Face: Mrs. Puff does this to a couple of security guards when she mistakenly thinks they're SpongeBob and Patrick in disguise.
• Tempting Fate:
  • In a flashback for when she first opened her boating school, Mrs. Puff vowed to never give up on any student who is willing to learn. And then SpongeBob came along.
  • Similarly, when Mrs. Puff is locked in solitary confinement, she again attempts to stay optimistic over the fact that she's alone and away from SpongeBob in her nice soft room... made of sponge.
• Toilet Teleportation: One of SpongeBob and Patrick's attempts to break Mrs. Puff out of jail involves this.
• Unexplained Recovery: As a possible foreshadow to the episode being All Just a Dream, SpongeBob completely destroys Mrs. Puff's Boating School in an atomic explosion, but by the time Mrs. Puff ends up in prison, the Boating School is back in one piece, albeit abandoned and dusty.
• Unishment: Mrs. Puff enjoys being in prison after she realizes that it means she doesn't have to deal with SpongeBob.
• Unwanted Rescue: Mrs. Puff clearly does not want to be broken out of prison.
• Vocal Dissonance:
  • Donna sounds like a gruff man.
  • Conversely, Tom sounds like a woman, despite usually being voiced by men.
• Waxing Lyrical: "Happiness is just two kinds of ice cream!"
• Working on the Chain Gang: At one point, Mrs. Puff is laboring on the rock pile while in prison. SpongeBob and Patrick disguise themselves as rocks to help break her out. She tells them she doesn't want to go free, since she then she won't have to deal with SpongeBob anymore, and the prison guards think she's insane from talking to inanimate objects. To add injury to insult, another prisoner smashes SpongeBob and Patrick's disguises (and by extension, the duo themselves) to bits.
  SpongeBob: There goes our deposit on these costumes.

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